He had tact enough to keep that to himself. So the last party stood on the lawn in the sunlight, waiting for the final arrangements; and of the four men standing there, three were in love with the same woman: and one was beloved.

And now a new complication arose. Annie and Miss Le Jeune, seeing the turn things were taking, warmly protested against the arrangement proposed. They would have neither Charley nor Roger for the charioteer of their precious lives. The one was so flightythey called him mercurial, which had a grander sound-he would miss the right turning, or upset them in the ditch, or turn them out over the hedge; the other was better certainly, but he was not experienced enough-the horses would run away, or they would come down, or they would have a fit, or faint, said Miss Annie pathetically; horses did faint very often in the hot weather, poor things! or they would break their knees or something; and Mr. Roger Lewin, though a charming young man, would not know what to do if there was an accident: and accidents so easily happen, you know, without blame to any one. So they set themselves in decided opposition, and talked and coaxed and insisted till they finally carried their point, and Mr. Hunter found himself obliged to yield to instances which had at least this flattering assurance, that both ladies thought him sufficiently worthy to be trusted with valuable cargo.

Mrs. St. John took no part in the discussion; neither did little Georgie; unless, indeed, that might be called taking a part which was simply looking up at Roger Lewin once, and saying in a low voice, 'You drive me,' as they stood a little apart: she digging round holes in the lawn with her parasol, and he arranging the lash of a whip which he held in his hand. when the pretty arguing had ceased, and Mr. Hunter had yielded with a very blank face-'I think the arrangement a very good one;' then, said Mrs. St. John, we four ladies in the phaeton, and Mr. Hunter and

But

Mr. St. John on the box. Mr. Lewin and Mr. Dunn can break each other's necks in the dog-cart.' Mr. Hunter's face brightened. He would have rubbed his hands if he had dared; as it was, he gave a small unmelodious chuckle, and clumsily rubbed his chin.

'Oh, no, Carry!' said Georgie hastily. I want to go in the dogcart. I hate sitting with my back to the horses-you know I do.'

'You shall sit on the box, then, with Mr. Hunter, and St. John shall come inside,' suggested Mrs. St. John amiably.

Miss Le Jeune and Miss Annie looked at each other, and a smile, not at all of the kind poets call honied, crisped up their lips like vinegar.

'Rather an extraordinary place for a young lady, is it not?" said Miss Le Jeune coldly.

'Oh! in the country one doesn't mind a little relaxing of the reins,' said Mrs. St. John very tranquilly.

'I can drive Miss Fenton over in the dog-cart,' then said Roger Lewin, coming forward with his steady cheery air, as if he had been the possessor of half a million, and not only the private secretary, my dear.' 'Mr. Dunn can sit behind and keep guard; and you know,' smiling and tossing up his bright brown hair, with a very pardonable affectation of modesty, 'I am not a very despicable whip-at least not for one horse.' (He was the best in the whole country side.) 'Don't you think my plan the best, Mr. Hunter? he continued: 'it disposes of a great many difficulties.'

'By far the best,' said Miss Le Jeune quite warmly.

'So nice for Miss Fenton in the dog-cart!' said Miss Annie as if she envied her.

and then he hated a fuss, and dread hitches' in a day's enjoyment. That shall decide it, Hunter, shall it not? We are all arguing as to the custody of Miss Georgie, without giving her a voice, and I call that shabby!"

'If it is left to me, I should prefer to go in the dog-cart with Mr. Dunn and Mr. Lewin,' said Georgie hastily, but with a deep blush.

Mr. Hunter bowed, rallying himself so far as to say, a little grumpily, though he did his best to look graceful, You are the queen, Miss Fenton, and have only to command your worshippers.'

And again Miss Le Jeune and Miss Annie looked at each other, and smiled crispily.

'Your father shall hear of this, Miss,' whispered Mrs. St. John, grasping her arm as she passed so savagely that the red marks could be seen quite plainly through the muslin. But Georgie was too happy to be resentful. She was young and in love, and the present moment was her all, and the future might never come; so she took no notice of the spiteful pinch, but only answered coaxingly, 'Don't be angry, Carry, dear,' as she jumped into the dog-cart briskly. And then the most radiant and innocentlyloving little face in the world turned like a sunbeam upon the heavier party in the phaeton, and a shower of smiles and nods and handwayings followed them so long as they were in sight, as they rattled off into the summer lane of trees and wild flowers.

'She will be obliged to me, at all events, for yielding to her wishes,' said Mr. Hunter in a musing way to Mr. St. John on the box beside him. (Miss Annie had put in a faint claim for the place, but Mrs. St. John had out-manoeuvred her, without leaving her a chance.) Mr. St. John held his peace: he could have said too much.

"Thank you, Roger, dear Roger! said little Georgie simply, laying her hand on his arm as they drove off-the phaeton was now out of sight.

Roger Lewin looked at her, as she said this; a look of such infi

nite tenderness, and the man's intensity of love, that Charley Dunn, who just then turned round on the back seat to speak to them, comprehended the situation in an instant, and knew the secret which had been kept so religiously between them for six weeks or more.

'By Jove!' said Charley to himself, and he turned quite cold for a moment, this is awkward.'

'What else could I have done?' said Roger to her softly. 'It was

a bold thing to brave your sister so openly, but it had to come. It has to come in real earnest, you know, Georgie dearest, sooner or later, if we would be true or happy.'

'Yes, but still it was so good of you!' repeated Georgie fervently. For I know that you felt for me more than for yourself, and that it was to release and please me you came forward and upset them all.'

'And not to please myself at all?' returned Roger, with a lover's smile. 'I am afraid I am not quite so unselfish, little darling, as you would make me out; and that if I thought of your pleasure a little, I thought a great deal of my own.'

Oh! that is the old argument, you naughty boy!' said Georgie, laughing and blushing.

Which one? we have so many! The argument as to which loves the other best, or who will hold out the longest?'

ז'

She did not answer this, but looked up at him shyly, and yet with so much frankness in her love, if with maiden bashfulness in the expression of it, that it needed all Roger's self-command not to put his arm round her waist and kiss her in the face of the sun and Charley. Why should he not? he thought. She was his, so far as love and plighted troth could make her; why should he not confess the love she had given him, and claim both recognition and fulfilment ? But wiser counsels prevailed, and Roger did nothing of so expressive a nature that it could never be glossed over again. He only took her small and pleasant hand, and pressed it up against his heart.

The drive was very delightful, at least to two out of the three, for

was

Charley had not much share in the fun, as he phrased it. Knowing what was expected of him he discreetly kept his eyes and his tongue to himself; too well versed in the art and mystery of his normal character, that of playing gooseberry,' not to be aware that, before they had driven half a mile, if he would only efface himself they would have forgotten his very existence in the fulness of their content. As it proved. Wrapped up in the imperious selfishness of love, they passed the blooming summer hours in the heaven of young lovers; and when they drove up to Harrowfield-side, where every one waiting for them, were ready to swear that they had not been half an hour on the road, though the heavy old phaeton and its sullen discontented freight had been there more than that time before them. They came, strengthened for anything that might happen: strengthened for Mrs. St. John's angry eyes, for Miss Annie's unpleasant smile, and Miss Le Jeune's disagreeable insinuations; strengthened for even Mr. Hunter's very natural self-repayment in the instant possession which he took of little Georgie, evidently intending to appropriate her (if he could) for the whole of the day after; strengthened for open war and for secret plots, by one of the longest spells of uninterrupted intercourse, and one of the most thoroughly confidential talks they had ever had together. If Georgie Fenton and Roger Lewin were in love with each other when the sun rose to-day, what could it be called now? As Georgie said afterwards, in her simple way, 'I felt that I was married to him, and that it would be a crime, and impossible, ever to break it off.'

The pic-nic was a success. Charley Dunn had sworn it, striking palms with Miss Louisa Globb, who bet him a shagreen cigar-case against a dog-headed riding-whip, that it would hitch somewhere: pic-nics always did;' and though he was taken aback by the discovery he had made, and dismayed at the idea of the 'mess little Miss had got herself into,' yet he shook him

self free from all embarrassing reflections when the time for action came, and exerted himself, as usual, to put the whole thing on castors, as the French say.

The day was fine, which was one essential secured; and there was enough and to spare of whom to choose for partners and comrades. Young people paired themselves according to fancy, and wandered away together with that pretence of unconsciousness we all know of; and their elders agglomerated themselves into groups, and fed each other with flattery or gossip, as the taste of the majority went. Mrs. St. John made profuse demonstrations to Lady Scratchley, who disliked her to almost plebeian vehemence, and thought her 'low,' wherein her ladyship was not so far out; and Miss Grandville and Miss Le Jeune stood on the outskirts of the party, criticising the young ladies of the assembly, and, strangely enough, finding none of them all pretty or well dressed, amiable or well mannered. But then they were both ladies of immense refinement, and had high ideals. The monkey-faced admiral singled out Maggie Wood, because she was as bluff as himself; and the two made no end of amusement for all within ear-shot of their rough play. The Miss Glóbbs, and their brothers, and their useful men, multiplied themselves, like so many Vishnus, and formed concentric circles of laughter everywherebeing poor, this was their manner of paying for their entertainment by society. The two Miss Hawtreys sang their last new songs to the accompaniment of the guitar which one carried, and of the concertina of which the other was the social

professor.' Miss Moss was superb, haughty, and a little insolent in her cleverness; and pretty Mary Dowthwaite looked languishingly at young Abraham, on his side not backward to attract as many languishing looks as good fortune and the young ladies would throw in his way; and, in short, the whole scene was one of bright colours, animated faces, picturesque groups, and universal jollity, as the company dispersed among the trees of the

field-side copse, or sat on the fresh dry grass of the meadows, or perched themselves up on the tall banks, all enjoying themselves to the utmost of their natural ability, this warm, sunshiny, glorious summer day.

Mr. Hunter was kind in his way to all. A little heavy, perhaps, and utterly bankrupt in the small change of conversation; but meaning to be kind, which goes a long way. He did his arbitrary, clumsy best to keep Georgie tacked to his arm all the day; and she, partly for gratitude and partly for fear of observation, let herself be led captive until dinner-time; but then she slipped her leash, and managed in the simplest and yet the cleverest way in the world to get a seat next to Roger Lewin, far away from both host and elder sister; and when dinner was over, she made her escape into the wood: whether alone or not no one ever knew. But the latter half of the day was passed without her sweet face among the players at croquet and Aunt Sally; and it was only when evening and mustering time came, that she reappeared-no one quite knew when, or how, or whence-her hands full of wild flowers, her eyes full of love, and her heart so full of happiness, she scarce knew how to hold it all together without letting it run out for all the world to see. A short time after Roger Lewin joined the group where she was; and he, too, came in the same apparitional way, looking, as Mary Dowthwaite said softly, as if he had met an angel in the wood.'

'Like Balaam's beast,' said young Abraham Moss, who did not like him.

So Mr. Samuel Harmer Hunter's grand coup went off to perfection. There was an immense amount of laughing and almost as much flirting; some friendships struck upsome, too, disintegrated, finally and sent crumbling to chaos; and some pleasanter bonds, and stricter, just begun in the weaving; and much that was charming if less that was intense, as the order and result of the day's experience. And when they all separated after a delicious dance and a first-rate supper at the

Oaks Mr. Hunter's place-every one agreed that it was the most delightful thing ever given at Brough Bridge; and Mr. Hunter's popularity was assured, and the fact of his being a retired iron merchant condoned and done with.

But there is always a mauvais quart d'heure after every joy; the bill that must be paid when the cakes have been caten and the wine has been drunk; and this quarter of an hour had to come to Roger and Georgie. Mrs. St. John had left them rope enough for the hanging. All the day after the first brush about the carriages she had purposely ignored the existence either of sister or secretary. Her sharp eyes, and hers alone, had detected little Georgie stealing off into the wood where Roger Lewin had sauntered not so long before-and she had held her peace: nay, she had even seen George's fresh muslin whisking through briars and brambles, in the endeavour to find a lonely place where Love might take his ease and not need Caution to stand sentinel against intrudersand still she held her peace: but when they all reached home, then the storm burst forth; and fat, lazy, irascible old papa lost a night's rest for trouble at the ill news his

daughter St. John' brought him. He was a proud man, though a vacillating and a weak, and had no intention of allowing his prize child to fling herself away on a young fellow like Roger Lewin-a mere nobody, all very well in his way, but with only character and good looks for his fortune. And that didn't seem quite enough to the old banker, used to deal with thousands and tens of thousands. So the next morning the young secretary was sent for, betimes, into the library, and shown his bill-the cost of yesterday's confirmation of his love.

'So, young man!' cried Mr. Fenton, pushing his spectacles up over his forehead, and looking at Roger with as much disdain as anger; 'a pretty use you have made of your time, I hear; and a fine return for all my kindness to you!'

'I am sorry, sir, that you have

heard anything unfavourable of me,' answered Roger quietly.

'Unfavourable? Oh! you call it unfavourable, do you? Well done, Mr. Roger! You can be mealymouthed to yourself, I see, however bold in action. Disgraceful, sir; dishonourable, unmanly; that's what I call it! Unfavourable, indeed! I like that!'

Roger flushed. "May I know the conduct to which you apply these terms, Mr. Fenton?' he then said. They are hard words for a man to hear unconnected with any definite fact.'

'Come, come, Mr. Roger! this kind of bravado will not do for me! You know well enough what I mean; and to affect this simpering ignorance is only to add hypocrisy to dishonour. Yes, sir; hypocrisy to dishonour: I repeat it. What is all this, I hear, of you and my daughter, Miss Fenton, eh, sir? Answer me that, I say!' striking the table with his fist.

'I do not know what you have heard, Mr. Fenton,' answered Roger, raising his eyes full to the old man's. 'I only know what I have to tell; I love your daughter, and she loves me; beyond this, I have nothing to confess.'

Mr. Fenton's puffy face changed curiously during his secretary's audacious speech.

'You love my daughter, and she loves you! Oh! that's it; is it?' he said, after a pause, speaking in a slow, deliberate way, quite different to his former petulance. 'Well, then, let us argue the matter coolly, Mr. Roger. There is nothing like coolness and Cocker. I suppose you have not rushed into solemn responsibilities without consideration? If you have induced my daughter to love you, you must have some plans for the future; marriage, I should suppose, and a home, and all that? What, now, have you got to offer her?' crossing his legs; 'what is your fortune? and what settlements will you make on her? I am not hard, you see, or unreasonable, and can discuss the matter calmly.'

'I can make no settlements, and. I have no assured fortune. I have VOL. VIII.-NO. XLIII.

only my love, my brains, and my hands,' answered Roger a little grandly.

'Poor pay, young man! poor pay! I doubt the pot boiling over that fire.'

'With love and courage, it is not such a very bad prospect!' returned Roger smiling, encouraged by Mr. Fenton's manner. Love is so credulous of good!

'Love and a fiddlestick's end!' roared Georgie's father, blazing out again. 'Don't talk your absurd sentimentalities to me, sir! There's no rational business in them! I ask you again; what do you mean to do for my daughter?'

'Work to maintain her; as you worked, dear sir, when you were young, and married Mrs. St. John's mother.'

Give

'Now look, Master Roger,' said Mr. Fenton, uncrossing his legs and speaking not unkindly-for he really liked the lad, and was almost as sorry as he was angry at the whole affair- this kind of folly must come to an end. You must see for yourself that it has no root, no foundation, no possibility of future life in it. it up, boy, as a dream-very natural perhaps, to your age and inexperience-but as a dream that must be shaken off. I trust your word so thoroughly, that if you will now promise me on your honour as a gentleman, to have done with this folly, I will overlook the past, and we will go on again as before. Give me your word, Roger, and let the thing stand by.'

"Thank you, sir; I feel all your kindness, and understand it to the utmost,' answered Roger; but I cannot give up your daughter's. love, or her promise. So long as she remains true to me, I will, remain true to her; and after. I cannot give her up, save at her own desire.'

'Then we must part, Mr. Lewin; we must part,' said Mr. Fenton testily.

Roger turned pale. 'I cannot remonstrate, Mr. Fenton,' he said sadly; you are in your right here, and I have but to obey.'

'I am sorry for it, Roger, very sorry; very sorry indeed to lose

E